Category: Author News/Announcements

We are happy to bring you this interview of George R. R. Martin at Mysticon brought to us by the sexy beast Podcasting’s Rich Sigfrit. Rich has been kind enough to share this interview via simulcast on BTW and Geek Radio Daily. The interview was recorded at the end of February just before the Season 6 premiere which is why you hear a lot of questions about whether Jon Snow is alive or not.

Our next episode will either be our Season 6, Episode 6 discussion, or live show at Balticon 50 depending on how well recordings go.

Be sure to leave some feedback or share for an entry to our season 6 contest to win a $50 gift card. Get 5 bonus entries if you rate/review us on iTunes or Google Play.

Random House announced on Wednesday that they will release a recently discovered manuscript w/illustrations by beloved author and artist Dr. Seuss.

The book is titled What Pet Should I Get? and is scheduled for release on July 28. The publisher plans at least two more books, based on materials found in 2013 in the author’s home in La Jolla, California.

The materials had been set aside after his death when his wife, Audrey Geisel, was remodeling her home. She found a box filled with pages of text and sketches and set it aside with some of her husband’s other materials.

The box was rediscovered 22 years later, in the fall of 2013 by Audrey, and Claudia Prescott — Ted Geisel’s longtime secretary and friend — when they were cleaning out his office space. They found the full text and illustrations for What Pet Should I Get?, among other work.

What Pet Should I Get? was likely written between 1958 and 1962. The book features the same brother and sister seen in Dr. Seuss’ 1960 classic One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

This never-ever-before-seen picture book by Dr. Seuss about making up one’s mind is the literary equivalent of buried treasure! What happens when a brother and sister visit a pet store to pick a pet? Naturally, they can’t choose just one! The tale captures a classic childhood moment—choosing a pet—and uses it to illuminate a life lesson: that it is hard to make up your mind, but sometimes you just have to do it!

Born Theodore Seuss Geisel, Dr Seuss passed away in 1991 at the age of 87.

EDIT: P.G. passed away on August 20th, 2014. Thank you so much for the past and continued support!

Beloved friends, family, and fans of P.G. (Patrick) Holyfield,

It is with heavy hearts that we share the news that PG was recently diagnosed with cancer. We apologize that you have to find out this way, but this has surprised us all.

Over the past two weeks he has had extensive testing at his local hospital, as well as another round of tests and confirming opinion from a second hospital.

What it comes down to is that there are no treatment options, primarily because the cancer has spread to his organs. It has moved silently and swiftly and only presented symptoms in the last month. The disease has already taken a heavy toll.

Sadly, communication is already very difficult for him, so if you have called, texted, emailed, PM’d, or reached out in any other way in the last few weeks and haven’t heard back, this is why. It’s not because he doesn’t want to, it’s that he cannot. Please take no offense.

Organ failure and the pain meds have made it hard to communicate as clearly as we’re all used to. He has been focusing on rest and nutrition to fight this battle, and now we focus on time. The brief time for PG to experience the width and breadth of all of the lives he has touched.

As ever, Patrick has his special lady friend Kim (as he likes to introduce her) as well as family and close friends helping him get through this. If you would like to see him, please contact Vivid Muse immediately to try and work out details. The sooner, the better, as we’re told.

If you would like to send a brief video or audio greeting, or an email message (all to choochus@gmail.com) we will make sure he hears and sees it. If not video, please include a picture we can show as we read it to him. These messages of support and hearing how much he has meant to people gives a huge lift.

We’re by his side for moral and physical support. We’ve set up a GoFundMe Page for donations to help defray the mountains of medical bills this sort of thing results in, and to help PG with the other expenses in comforting him and his family in the coming weeks. We’d appreciate you sharing the link far and wide, and donating if able.

With your help in spreading the word, we can rally more support around him. Your well wishes will greatly lift his spirits.

Sincerely,

Viv and Chooch

Questions and Answers

Q: What kind of cancer is it?
A: It is called Cholangiocarcinoma. As is common with this form of cancer, the exact location of origin is not known. It is aggressive and spreads quickly before symptoms are experienced.

Q: What “stage” is he at?
A: There hasn’t been an official designation, however, it is “late” stage. It has spread to his lymph nodes and organs, and is inoperable. Patrick went through one chemo treatment, but the disease did not respond as well as was hoped. His organs have begun to shut down. The doctors have been talking in days and weeks, rather than months and years.

Q: Where is he, can I send something?
A: Patrick is being cared for at home in Charlotte, North Carolina. In lieu of sending cards or flowers, please donate to his GoFundMe Page.

Q: How long has he been sick? This seems fast.
A: Extremely fast. Early in July Patrick began feeling “run down”, and shortly thereafter had some minor pain. He went in for a check up and the doctors initially thought he may have gall stones. After initial blood tests they knew there was something more serious. Two weeks ago they knew it was cancer and started more testing. Two days ago we learned there were no treatment options.

Q: Can I call him? How can I get in touch?
A: PG is currently unable to talk on the phone. You can send email or a Facebook message which we’ll read to him and show him your picture if we have one. Better yet, record a quick video or audio message! You can send a private YouTube or Dropbox link, Google Drive share, or attach to an email (to choochus@gmail.com).

Q: Is this a secret? Can I re-Tweet this or share it on Facebook or forward this to a friend?
A: Yes, please do! We want everybody that has read his stories, heard him on a podcast, or attended one of his convention panels to get the word. We feel that he could use all of the kind words and support possible.

Q: What can I do to help?
A: Send that encouraging video or message. Please share the donation link, shout it from the rooftops, and donate if you are able. Since we know posts get filtered, re-share in coming days to get the word out. Depending on your beliefs; sending prayers, positive thoughts, white light, good vibrations, noodly appendages, and rainbows are all greatly appreciated. Whether you believe in a higher power or not, he needs all the help he can get.

Q: Who the heck are you, anyway?
A: Viv and Chooch are friends of Patrick, as well as co-hosts on some of his podcasting and video endeavors. As parents, gamers, and dog lovers of similar age and interests, we’ve become very close over the past seven years. Our hope is to bring folks together in support of PG as quickly as possible.

A few years ago I wrote a short story (short for me, in any case, around 8K words) for Matthew Wayne Selznick\\™s The Sovereign Era: Year One anthology. It was called \\Every Breath You Take.\\ It\\™s the story of high school senior Christian Murphy, who has it bad for a foreign exchange student named Stacey… \\˜but in a world where thousands of people are learning they possess unique, incredible powers, what exactly stands in the way of Christian getting what he wants?\\™

Last Fall, Matt did a Kickstarter for his second novel set in this universe, and I offered to write a \\˜sequel\\™ to my first story as a pledge reward for his fans. Matt allowed me to play in his universe once again, and this story became more of a \\˜novelette,\\™ with a word count of nearly 14K. Now that Matt has fulfilled his Kickstarter obligations, we\\™re getting this puppy out as an e-book on Amazon and B&N for $3.99. The name of this novelette? \\Canary in a Coal Mine.\\

It will be available at online retailers on Friday, but if you are an .epub or .mobi consumer, you can pre-order it now for $2.99 until 11:59 PM PST, tomorrow night.

So, more about \\˜Canary,\\™ which can be read as a standalone story (although there are characters from the first story that appear in this one as well, so go get \\˜Breath\\™ for 1.99 at Amazon or B&N… it\\™s good)

\\Sovereign Conduct Enforcement Team (S.C.E.T.) investigators Adoette Smith and Joshua Wolff team with a local police officer to investigate what happened at the end of \\˜Breath,\\™ and the disappearance of the potential Sovereign, Stacey Miller

When circumstances bring Adoette\\™s violent, troubled past to the surface, will she be able to utilize her own Sovereign abilities in time to find Stacey?

I had fun with this story, and doing it got me back in the writing mood, in a big way. I hope you enjoy it. And if you enjoy the setting and haven\\™t read Matt Selznick\\™s Sovereign novels, please do!!

Richard Ragan writes for a living (writing software that is, for a very large Internet Auction site). Richard was weaned on reading science fiction and by 4th grade had exhausted the genre at the school library. To deal with the shortage, he soon scored library cards at all five town libraries.

Entranced by computers in high school, he achieved notoriety by writing one of the earliest computer programs to write poetry and saw it featured in the New York Times, Washington Post and Scientific American. Not bad for a computer made of vacuum tubes with software on punched cards. Sadly a professor of modern poetry had this criticism:

“Legitimate and interesting sort of operation … too much of the old notion of poetic diction; it was too limited in nature… has no satiric force against modern poetry”

After grad school, a career in computer software beckoned and this has kept him amused and challenged since. Bike riding, geocaching, photography, hiking and travel to UNESCO World Heritage sites keep him occupied when not working. Eventually, once retired, he hopes to see if writing and podcasting is for him.

Richard attended the inaugural Tuacacon 2010 and was pleased to have his suggestion for the improv section adopted — “The Voyages of the Starship Tuaca”.

Born and raised an Army brat, Justin spent many years always on the move, always making new friends and trying to fit in while finding his own path. His greatest allies were books, and now he’s been given an opportunity to add his own stories to the shelves. In addition to books, he was raised on movies and video games across every imaginable genre and style, and the stories he writes reflect that. He hopes you enjoy the words he’s squeezed from his brain, and that you’ll not just read them, but reach out and tell him what you think. He don’t write just for himself — he writes for you, too. And, hopefully one day you’ll not only be reading his work in book form, but you’ll see it in film, television, perhaps even in a game or graphic novel.

On a more personal note, Justin is a happily married fella and has been for over a decade. He and Krista don’t have any children, but the love they shower on their many dogs and cats fills their lives with joy.

James Durham, composer and Parsec-award-winning podcaster of FETIDUS (The Foundation for the Ethical Treatment of the Innocently Damned, Undead and Supernatural), lives in the DC area patiently awaiting a major zombie apocalypse. His music has played at venues like the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, to wide acclaim on the radio, in indie-film, video and dance productions.

Tee Morris is one of the Writer Guests of Honor for TuacaCon 2011 (along with Nathan Lowell and Philippa J. Ballantine).

Tee Morris has been writing adventures in far-off lands and far-off worlds since elementary school. Inspired by numerous Choose Your Own Adventure titles and Terry Brooks\\™ Shannara series, he wrote not-so-short short stories of his own, unaware that working on a typewriter when sick-from-school and, later, on a computer (which was a lot quieter\\¦that meant more time to write at night\\¦) would pave a way for his writings.

Podcasting MOREVI led to the founding of Podiobooks.com and collaborating with Evo Terra and Chuck Tomasi on Podcasting for Dummies. It also won acclaim and accolades for his first solo title,Billibub Baddings andThe Case of the Singing Sword, the podcast winning a 2008 Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama. While writing Fantasy is his passion, his journalism chops were still called upon when commissioned to write articles for BenBella Books\\™s Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets and So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions of Battlestar Galactica. He was also tapped to write All a Twitter, a definitive guide to working with Twitter. With his diverse background in Science Fiction, writing, and Social Media,Tee has hosted presentations at venues across the country and around the world including The Library of Congress, BlogWorld, CREATE South, and Te Papa Tongawera.

Tee has now returned to writing fiction with The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrencesseries, written with his wife, Pip Ballantine. When Tee is not creating something on his Macintosh, he enjoys a good run, a good swim, martial arts (which he will start up again, someday), and putting together new playlists to write by. His other hobbies include cigars and scotch, which he regards the same way as anime and graphic novels: \\I don\\™t know everything about them, but I know what I like.\\ (And he likes Avo and Arturo Fuente for his smoke, Highland Park for his scotch!) He enjoys life in Virginia alongside Pip, his daughter, and five cats.